Just came back from the Kancil Awards 2007 & the MMVB (Malaysia’s Most Valuable Brands) appreciation dinner. It was held in Aliyaa at Damansara. We were served with authentic Sri Lankan Tapas.
Among those attended are people who have contributed much to the growth of the advertising industry. People who are CEO’s, Managers and Directors of all the huge multi-national advertising agencies you heard of. And of course, me, the little designer with less than two years working experience who happens to be working for the 4As. Surrounded by all these people really shows you how little you have actually achieved. These are people who have successfully staged world class events, inspired many, and contributed much to the wealth of the industry.
Speaking and hearing from these people truly inspires and educates. They do have a lot to share and tell about. By just spending a few minutes with Micheal Johnson, he will be willing to share with you about his working days with Wally Olins and also give you an envelope full of his aerogram designs. Sitting down with John Walters, I was actually told how editorials are compiled and edited for the Eye magazine.
All these people are those who have had years of experience, been through the dealings of various parties, faced rejection in work life, fell down and stood up again and work really hard to make it to where they are today.
As the year comes to an end, I want to include this post as an inspiration to others including myself.
It is essential for a designer to stop looking at design monographs, online portfolios and learn from the gurus. Speak to them, write to them* or ring them up**. Be nice and don’t try to hard to impress or be a groupie. You got to have a little guts which always works for me.
* I do write to some designers sometimes.
** I used to call Kay up last time to ask him about typography and fonts when I was a student.
All this is written on a personal standpoint. A little general in certain terms. A little comparative with last year’s Kyoorius Designyatra.
‘Passports’ carrying the embalm above were actually required to enter the venue.
Starting with the delegates. I observed not only professionals and students of the related field attending this event but also professionals and students from various disciplines as well. It’s very encouraging for a designer if someone from the other field comes and talks about design. The conversations might be general but I find myself talking to people who are passionate and interested to know about design. The list also includes creative directors, brand consultants, administrators of industry related companies, engineering students, designers, etc; just to name a few. I did not engage in conversations like this last year. I had the honor to talk to John Walters, editor of Eye magazine, where we shared on the editorial process of the Eye magazine and exchange ideas about design writing. He did a little interview thing (which I was a little nerves that I might goof-up) asking opinions on the event, the speakers, the relevance of what design practices that were shared and personal views on design.
I thought that this would be very touching to people who can relate to this.
The venue was actually a two huge temporary tents setup specially for the event. The place was flooded a few days before due to very heavy rain. But participants could happily enter after the organizers manage to clear up the mess. As you can see in the picture below, it is indeed huge. One tent for the conference main hall, one for exhibitors and another to act as a food court where the Kyoorius Rupees played their role.
The strong line-up of speakers made this event very worthwhile. Some highlights I enjoyed:
Wally Olins, after giving a solid lecture on the role of design in branding, answered a few questions given to him. When asked to comment on the London 2012 Olympics logo, he explains that the logo is specifically created for moving motion; displays well on iPods, Mobile phones where they appear dynamic and strong when being viewed. The target audience of this logo are actually teenagers, who will eventually grow into the main spectators of the Olympics five years later.
David Kestler gave the audience a touch of the affairs of business and design by highlighting that both should work hand in hand. Being a very influential man in the design scene in the UK, paying attention to his lecture will make you find out that the entire business of design is actually a serious pratice and also the fact that there is a market out there where businesses are blooming because of effective design playing its role in contributing. Half of the hall went off during Trevor Sowood’s talk on the importance of paper in enhancing design. He covered on very issues about paper that I feel are important for a designer in quality control in print.
Kyle Cooper was a surprise. I never expected him to be a deep thinker where he provoked thoughts that made my mind wondered about into new perspectives of design where most designers will not acknowledge. Having Paul Rand as his design mentor, he looks at the works of Rand as designs that capture ‘a certain specific moment’ where if any elements within Rand’s designs are moved imaginatively, it will appear in a total different aesthetic and function or role. He presented the design discipline as an area where much commitment should be given into and a healthy practice of design is not only beneficial but rewarding as well. It was indeed definitely entertaining to look at the beautiful movie titles he designed, but the one hour forty five minute lecture was very worth it and one should be there to experience.
I’ve also always enjoyed Neville Brody’s lectures. He was among one of the speakers in last years Designyatra and gave a strong lecture on some thoughts of design surrounding our environment after showcasing a few of the projects he worked on. This year, he gave a case study on the redesign of the Times newspaper and on the Fuse project with a little of other projects in between, ending it with thoughts on design. I felt that there was a touch of humanity in his lecture this round and I was very humbled listening to it.
Stefan Sagmeister was without doubt the ‘rock star’ of the conference. As honest as he can be and truthful about the practices in his studio, makes his lectures always enjoyable. On the second day of the event, there was this historic moment when he sat down in front of all delegates, interviewing Neville Brody. Their discussions cover topics such as design education, the concerns for sizes for design studios and welcoming Micheal Johnson as the last speaker to close the event.
The main hotels were located about 30 minutes away from the venue within the scope of 10 minutes to each hotel within the radius. Shutter busses were provided to the venue. It took us a little longer to get to the venue in the mornings due to a landslide resulting in heavy traffic half way through. I shared a room with my colleague from India which gave me much relief. I shared a room with a roomie last year who apparently comes back at 4am and skips all the morning sessions.
I drank a little at the beach party at the last night. I grabbed my thick framed glasses in attempt to try looking good (like a chic-magnet as seen below), I ended up sitting down sharing my little experience with students. On the other hand, I actually worked with Jiad Li throughout the entire night after the first day of the event to clear some last minute stuff for the Kyoorius Verdict awards in the following night. I never attended the awards show that night because I was really exhausted. Also, there were a few high positioned people from the Malaysian advertising and design industry that attended the event. I thought that it was very meaningful to see them there and also relating to them as well.
Arghh… @%^&%*! Sand in my eyes!
Towards the end of the event, we all moved into a different hotel where the entire crew that made it happen was there to celebrate. We took a stroll along the beautiful Baga beach in Candolim, visited an old Catholic church in Old Goa and went to Fort Aguada twice to experience the majesty and typography of the absolutely amazing fortress.
We then went back to Mumbai, where we visited the Malad market where I bought lots of clothes and a little decorative items for Sharlene. We sat on one of these rickshaws that has a radio turned on loud with the song ‘Dudes look like a lady’ played loud which kept me very happy the entire trip.
This time, we enter the 1950’s of the Penguin era. Most of the books shown here were printed back then.
We can see that the horizontal grid, devised by Edward Young in about 1935 still stays. It used to be with the ever popular Bodoni Ultra Bold on the publishers name and the two alternatives of Gill Sans for the book title and authors name. The grid was later redrawn by Jan Tschichold in 1948 which did not introduce a new look but a modification/improvisation of the current.Tschichold also added a fine thin line as a border to the orange panels.
Well, I guess I am lucky enough to get one of the early 1950’s redesigned Pelicans. The frame, introduced also by Tschichold in about 1949. Eventough I don’t own one of those covers with illustrations on it, I do find the typeface, Gill Sans pleasing and easy on the eye on this one. Also, the rather bold idea of extracting some text describing its contents on its cover.
The Penguin Poets series, first appeared in 1941 featuring the italic Garamond for its authors name. The design was done by Jan Tschichold again back in 1954. (Seen on “Browning”)
“The Art of Marriage” & “Successful Living”, both covers designed by David Gentleman. Distinctive illustrations commissioned to fill the border space of the cover. Again, we notice the use of Gill Sans & extracts on what the book contains on the covers.
I have actually left all my Penguin Books in the office. I guess BOSS won’t mind if you guys pop in during our less busy periods to take a good look at them.
Stefan Sagmeister is coming to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on August 13th. Speaking at the Securities Commission at Sri Hartamas. Grab the tickets for the event quick! Only 300 seats available. A preview of the ticket is as shown below:
*Well, if you are here in hope of looking for tickets, all of them are sold out I guess. I don’t have anymore left.
*Edited: 6th Aug 2007
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You always start off with your vacation by booking a room in a hotel. However, this booking task should be performed on time as the hotel reservations are normally not available due to the rising tourism industry. For example, it is really difficult to get a room in miami hotel. So in order to avoid any problem during the trip you must choice hotels in time. Usually people like to select more adventure hotels to add fun to their holidays. The best america hotels excel in their quality and comfort. However some people still like to stay in cruise port hotels.
As a very young chap sometime ago, one of the first designers that injected a little interest in design is none other than Bob Gill. I bought “Graphic Design as a Second Language” book by chance. It made me drug high looking at it.
Being complimented by Paul Rand as one of Rand’s favourite designer, I’m sure Gill has something that we can learn from. Earning more than the Prime Minister (Harold Macmillan) himself at one point of time, he had a large impact on American graphic design till today, check out Sagmeister’s stuff to find out why! Even-tough he hailed from Brooklyn, NY, he had a lot to do with what we know as Pentagram now, Fletcher/ Forbes/ Gill back then.
On aspect of his work that I admire is always the ability to make a solution simple enough to understand out of a very complex problem. If you want to know why, you have to see some examples of his work. We are always bothered by the fact that we need to make something really neat,strictly grid-based minimalist and elegant looking designs to be called good designers and he comes and say:
” Look, there are no absolutes in design. Any rules or truths that you may have picked up about design, color, typography, balance, etc., are valid only if they help you accomplish what you wish. Otherwise, forget them”
What a very bold statement to say about design eh? The thing about statements like this is that they are definitely confusing and sets a preconception about how work should be done. Me, nonetheless, am a believer in his principles. It’s like saying don’t need all that. Its like saying you don’t need to be a junkie to do good design. Don’t need to learn about Bodoni to make a good design using it. Now, here is where the confusion comes in.
If you want to be a good designer, how much do you really need to know? Are all these things we learn or try to understand so hard applied at the end of the day? Or mere general knowledge?
For decades since the term graphic design exists, designers have been debating on what is good design. We look at the most copied styled designs as ’superb’(with all due respect, I really admire those whose designs have influenced other designers and changed and set design trends around). We also look at carefully crafted designs as good designs. We look at designs that broke the barriers of technology as revolutionary. We look at Sagmeister’s 1999 AIGA talk poster and say this is design at its peak. We look at Meta and admire its use-abilities and label the same. Again, I must stress on my respect towards the names mentioned above, they’re all my hero’s!
Reading from Norman Potters book, ‘What is a Designer?‘, stated in chapter 3, about ‘What is good design?’:
“For the designer, good design is the generous and pertinent response to the full context of a design opportunity, whether large or small, and the quality of the outcome resides in a close and truthful correspondence between from and meaning” ( There are still other definitions and explanations through as well)
This made me think a little, speaking of good design then requires us to also speak of, from the conditions of our time, and our personal views on these. Then again, culture also has a lot to do with design. In advertising, design serves to re-enforce the ideas behind the concepts. Typography likewise, forms language on a spread. The grid forms a systematic way things are arranged and influences the way we read.
About being good, I believe it is always hard to find a fine-line between good and having fun. In certain cases yes, not all. Knowledge is essential but the motivations are always questioned. Questioning simple reasons even like “Why do you use blue instead of yellow?”.
An encounter with an article written by Shawn Wolfe, ‘What’s my motivation?’ (Emigre no. 64) challenged me. Besides our daily routines design jobs, what actually motivated us to take up our after work jobs, or what some call ‘things that are more fun’?
At Figtree we have a list of jobs we do to earn our salary and jobs that come with a more open brief allowing more personal freedom and creativity to be shown through. Sometimes, the amount of time spent on our corporate jobs exceeds the ones we do which allow more creative freedom. It’s pretty frustrating at times but somebodies got to do the job. At times, I work without any motivation just to finish a clean-up job, doesn’t make me lazy but saving creative-energy ( what a term..).
Back to the article, it was an article what questions about our motivation in design. Why do we want to do design mainly and Why we do a particular design in a certain way. Articulate rage.
I would say it’s not just to find pleasure upon a completed job or to pull down a pay check. A rage could be the need or desire to express talent in a useful way, that is loud and smart, and of course with the help of Apple Computers… And some help from some of the best typefaces around blended with experience and skill. On social responsibility maybe? I enjoy the challenge or trying very hard just to layout a spread creatively. Sometimes, it makes me want to bit my tongue but by understanding the longer you work, the better you get might just help you through another day.
I certainly do not take pleasure in long-winded projects, they just tend to make me loose the core idea and message behind the designs. Simple joys in selecting typefaces and upon completion of simple projects are always looked forward too. Be it a clean-up job or an annual report or complex identity system, the assurance that you can find simple rewards you gain from your work, is enough (very personalized) to get you through another day as a designer. Including me.
What is your motivation? Why do you do design? I’m sure its beyond our bad mathematics calculation skills (applies to some).
Unrgubly, hs mst cnocal typac vr. FF MT™ savs papr, wall spac, on-scrn txt and hlps mak road signs short and much asir to rad! Hury, dwnld it nw! You knw you nvr want to mis tis 1 !
Not many girls enjoy James Bond. Girls find him “too-good-to-be-true”. Some even hate the way he treat women especially. Some guys, worship him. Posters and limited edition James Bond DVD fill up their TV rack. Me, on the other hand, worship the movie opening titles.
As usual, a typical Bond movie starting with a little movie teaser at the beginning of the movie. Then, we move to the trademarked gun barrel sequence. Amazing. Still looks good after all these years. If you have no idea about this, James will be walking normally then make a sudden turn towards the screed and shoots. The scene then will be rendered showing the assassin’s blood, filmed through a rifled gun barrel as if its from the perspective of the bullet.
Every James Bond movie title is amazing. Back from the Sean Connery years up to the recent Daniel Craig domain. They usually deplete slight female nudity. (yes..) Usually, there will be a little symbol symbolizing certain motifs and usually are non-related to the movie plot. The films theme will then be played along as the stills move around while the credits appear. Typographically, I could say that they have fairly decent typography over the titles. Can’t really recall them but they are worth observing and drool over.Casino Royale’s credits differ from the rest firstly because of the heavy use of computer graphics and violence in it. The motif’s used were playing cards while silhouettes of Bond fighting villains shown through. No women shown - with full respect to all females, I’m no ‘genderist’ but this time, they simply decided to move beyond that track.Designers involved:-
Maurice Blinder was pretty much responsible for the gun barrel sequence thingie.
Daniel Kleinman brought in computer graphics into the picture when he took over. Click here for a short interview about Casino Royale’s main titles.
Robert Brownjohn took Marget Bolan (41′ 23′ 37′) and projected the titles all over her body in Goldfinger (1964). Typography in this case, has been treated so seductively. (Ref= Sex & Typography)
The main titles can tell many things about what one should expect from a movie. It holds the key to wether a viewer will enjoy the movie or not. It gives viewers a ‘last-minute-excitement-boast”, working almost like a magazine cover. In things like these, type plays a very important part. If can seriously damage or spoilt the entire show if some sucky typeface or sucky type-treatment appears. Imagine arial shouting 90% all-over the screen. Or imagine Garamond being condensed at the begining of Pirates of the Caribbean.
So finally, if you are an inspired to be a type-geek, watch movie titles and ending credits. That’s the best part a movie can offer you. Seriously.
(updated post from previous blog, because i still think James Bond is cool)
You knw you nvr want to mis tis 1 !
@ FiFFteen in Goa, 2006 
